The Rapid Solicitors Racing Team may have not had the services of Shane Byrne at round nine of the 2012 MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship at Donington Park this weekend but team-mates Stuart Easton and Keith Farmer put on a good show to score a hat-trick of top seven placings between them.

With double British Superbike Champion Byrne ruled out through the shoulder injury sustained at Cadwell Park two weeks ago, it was left to Scotsman Easton to uphold BSB honour for the Penrith-based Paul Bird Motorsport Team and despite a difficult time in qualifying, the Hawick rider came good on race day.

In front of a very good crowd in the Leicestershire sunshine, Easton got a great start in the opening race to run with the leading pack for over half the race only for a red flag to come out due to an oil spillage from Alastair Seeley's Suzuki. In the re-start over seven laps, Stuart again got a good start and brought the machine home in a fine fourth place, less than eight seconds off the lead.

In the second race, Stuart again got a blistering start and was involved in a dice for the top ten positions and despite closing on the riders in front of him, had to settle for a battling seventh place at the flag to move up to 11th place in the standings.

Ulsterman Keith Farmer suffered a huge crash in qualifying for the Metzeler National Superstock 1000 Championship which meant the machine had to be totally rebuilt but despite this, the 'Clogher Bullet' circulated in the leading bunch of a very hectic race. But just as it looked like he would increase his championship lead over main rival Jason O'Halloran, a couple of harsh moves by his fellow competitors saw him cross the line in sixth place, just one place behind O'Halloran which meant he surrendered a point to the Aussie.

With two rounds to go, Farmer leads by nine points and hopes to increase that advantage in the next round at Silverstone.

Stuart Easton:

"I'm reasonably happy with a fourth and a seventh but I think it could have been a bit better. I was struggling a little bit with direction changes as Donington is a physical circuit and certain parts of me are still not 100% but I'll take these results. It was good to have some additional input from Shakey's side of the garage which helped and I hope we can continue with some more positive results at Assen in two weeks."

Keith Farmer:

"I'm not happy with sixth but it was a bit of damage limitation after the big crash in qualifying. The bike was totally new and took me a while to get used to so we didn't have a perfect set up. It was getting a little bit crazy out there and some riders were a bit desperate but I guess it could have been worse than losing one point to Jason. Thanks to the boys for a great job and I'm aiming to bounce back at Silverstone."

MCE British Superbike Championship Race 1 (7 laps)
1 Josh Brookes (Suzuki)
2 Tommy Hill (Yamaha)
3 Michael Laverty (Honda)
4Stuart Easton (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki)
5 James Westmoreland (Honda)
6 Alex Lowes (Honda)
DNS Shane Byrne (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki)

MCE British Superbike Championship Race 2 (20 laps)
1 Josh Brookes (Suzuki)
2 Michael Laverty (Honda)
3 Tommy Hill (Yamaha)
4 Tommy Bridewell (BMW)
5 Alex Lowes (Honda)
6 James Westmoreland (Honda)
7 Stuart Easton (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki)
DNS Shane Byrne (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki)

Championship points (after 9 rounds)
1 Hill 352pts
2 Brookes 326
3 Byrne 255
4 Laverty 240
5 Bridewell 162
6 Lowes 146
11 Easton 98

Metzeler National Superstock 1000cc Championship race (15 laps)
1 PJ Jacobsen (Suzuki)
2 Lee Johnston (Ducati)
3 Victor Cox (Kawasaki)
4 Lee Costello (Kawasaki)
5 Jason O'Halloran (Honda)
6 Keith Farmer (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki)

Championship points (after 11 rounds)
1 Farmer 166pts
2 O'Halloran 157
3 Cox 121
4 Storrar 109
5 Brogan 98
6 Johnson 90

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